So Cal Track Club wins team race at USA Masters Outdoor Championships

7/14/2013

OLATHE, KAN. – The So Cal Track Club left little doubt in the race for the club championship as it racked up a total of 879 points to win the team title as the USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships concluded Sunday at the Olathe District Activity Center.

Encompassing the true spirit of lifetime fitness, a total of five Olympians and 30 reigning world masters indoor and outdoor champions were among the more than 1,000 athletes ages 30-95+ that competed in Olathe for the USA Maters Outdoor Track & Field Championships. More information on the meet including complete results can be found here.

Find race videos and interviews from the entire week of competition in Olathe on usatf.tv by clicking the link here.

Finishing second in the team race was the Atlanta Track Club (335) and the Potomac Valley Track Club (227.50) was third.

The final day of the USA Masters Outdoor Championships produced a pair of world records in relay competition in the 4x400m and 4x800m. Grace Padilla, Lisa Ryan, Jennifer Burke and Sonja Friend-Uhl team up in the 4x800m to set a world record in a time of 9:18.33 while Gary Sims, Charles Rose, Mack Stewart and Robert Lida set the world 75-79 age group world record in the 4x400m in a time of 4:54.64.

Additionally, Williams Platts (M85, Boise, Idaho) continued his strong meet Sunday in winning the men’s javelin with a big toss of 36.99m/121-4. The win in the javelin gives Platts a total of five national titles throughout the duration of the competition, which also includes the pentathlon, long jump, discus and 100m.

A complete summary of the world and American records reached in Olathe along with a full listing of all champions on the final day of competition can be found below.

Masters athletes will now turn their attention to the 2013 World Masters Athletics Championships, which are scheduled for October 16-27 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Peyton, Collins forming great rivalry in sprints
Whether by chance of design, Oscar Peyton (M60, Accokeek, Md.) and Bill Collins (M62, Houston, Texas) bring out the best in one another on the track. It’s the standard that marks a great rivalry in sports.

“He’s the reason I train a little harder,” Peyton said of Collins Sunday at the USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships where the two had just raced to a photo finish in the men’s 200m. “We push each other. If you ask him, I think he would say the same thing.”

The two split their matchups in Olathe with Collins winning the 100m Saturday and Peyton winning the 200m Sunday and exceeding the listed American age-group record with his winning time of 24.32. Despite running into a more than four-meters-per-second headwind, the two carried each other to the fast time.

“It’s all Bill Collins,” Peyton said when asked how they were able to run so fast into a difficult headwind. “If not for him, I would have run slower.

“Bill smoked me (Saturday). So (Sunday) I decided to run my own race and finish strong. When I do beat Bill it seems to be in the 200m.”

As good of sprinters as there are in masters track and field, both Peyton and Collins hold world records in masters competition.